We kick off each week in the NBA by letting you know what’s been going well around the league—and what’s been falling apart:

RISING

1. David Stern. Have a look at some of the top headlines in the league up until a week ago, and you’d be hard-pressed to find the kinds of things the league would want to parade. There was the excess of injuries that could be linked to the compressed post-lockout schedule, and the general decline in the quality of play left in the lockout’s wake—scoring is down nearly five points per game, and the number of teams averaging 100-plus points has dropped from 11 to three. The biggest vote-getter in the All-Star game, Dwight Howard, has been trying to force his way out of town, and the league-owned Hornets have been horrible, at 4-23, after the trade of Chris Paul that Stern approved. Add onto that a New York Times Magazine report that pointed out the league’s inability to build on the Chinese foothold that Yao Ming created (the NBA office has disputed the report), and things seemed to be going pretty poorly for the Commish since he rammed through the collective-bargaining agreement in late November.

And then Jeremy Lin happened. Now, things at Madison Square Garden have gotten fun again, the league finally has a feel-good story worth promoting, and, as a bonus, stations in China and Taiwan are picking up Knicks games.

2. Texas. The Rockets lost on Sunday, but they’re 3-2 on their tough six-game road trip and 13-5 in their last 18 games—and they have a six-game homestand coming up. The Mavericks, too, have bounced back with tough wins over Denver, Minnesota and Portland, pulling themselves to fourth in the Western Conference. The team they’re chasing? That would be the third side of the Texas Triangle, the Spurs, who are leading the Southwest Division.

San Antonio has won seven straight, including the first three games of their nine-game rodeo road trip. More good news for the silver-and-black: Manu Ginobili made his return from hand surgery on Saturday against the Nets and finished with eight points and four assists in 17 minutes.

3. Pau Gasol. The Lakers wrapped up their Grammy road trip at 3-3, not so bad considering they were 2-7 on the road before that. They needed a late shot from Kobe Bryant and some critical bungling by the Raptors to close in Toronto with a win, but they should be encouraged by the play of power forward Pau Gasol, who seems to have snapped his early funk.

Gasol responded to the news that he was snubbed for the All-Star team by putting up 25 points and 14 rebounds against Boston, and had a double-double in all six games on the Lakers trip. In all, he averaged 18.3 points and 14.2 rebounds, plus 3.3 assists on the road swing.

“I thought we just kept working,” Gasol said. “Making big plays defensively and some big plays offensively too. ... Hopefully this will get us going, (give us) more confidence so we can step in and knock down open jumpers.”

FALLING

1. Toney Douglas. There really is only one loser in the whole Lin phenomenon, and it’s Douglas, the Knicks’ starting point guard for the first seven games of the year, with two other starts in late January. Douglas averaged 10.6 points last season and looked to be primed for a bigger role this year. But he started slowly, struggled with his shot and was averaging 8.2 points in 22.5 minutes before Lin’s five-game surge. Since then, he has logged three DNPs and has scored just seven points in 15 total minutes in the other two games.

Should the Knicks ever get Baron Davis healthy and playing well, Douglas—and possibly rookie Iman Shumpert—figures to find himself buried a little deeper on the bench.

2. Derrick Rose’s health. First it was the toe problem, now it is back spasms. The reigning MVP has tried to play through a myriad of issues, and as the team returns from its nine-game road trip on Monday, Rose is slated to see a specialist in hopes of finding some answers.

The good news for the Bulls is they have played 20 of their first 30 games on the road, and the next six-game block (which takes the team through the All-Star break) is in Chicago. The hope is that, if Rose needs to miss some time, the Bulls can keep winning by leaning on the homecourt edge. That’s a reasonable expectation—they’re 9-1 at the United Center this year.

3. The bottom. It is difficult to fathom just how poorly the worst teams in each conference have performed this year. The Wizards have begun to play better and have pulled away from the dreadful Bobcats in the East, and in the West, New Orleans is not even within shouting distance of the conference’s second-worst team, Sacramento. In fairness, both teams have put up with some tough injuries.

The prize of the Paul trade, Eric Gordon, has played only two games for the Hornets this year because of a knee injury, and head coach Monty Williams has used 11 starting lineups. Charlotte is without two starters, point guard D.J. Augustin and shooting guard Gerald Henderson, and small forward Corey Maggette missed six weeks with a hamstring problem. The Bobcats rank 29th in scoring, and the Hornets are 30th, which means the race for the most ping-pong balls in this year’s lottery figures to be interesting—as long as you don’t actually have to watch the games.